Clears

Turnovers

Face Offs Won

Man Up

NEW HAVEN, Conn. ? The Yale men's lacrosse team (2-4, 0-2 Ivy) played its longest game ever last week at home against Princeton, and the Bulldogs are back at home again this week for another Ivy League game. Saturday at 1 p.m. the Elis host Penn (1-5, 0-2) at Reese Stadium in a contest that airs live on Yale's All Access on yalebulldogs.com.

LAST MEETING

Penn overcame a three-goal deficit in the first half to outlast (10-9) Yale at Franklin Field a year ago. Matt Miller had three goals while Matt Gibson (4 points) and Brian Douglass ?11 each had two as Yale put 36 shots on Brian Feeney (6 saves). The Quakers, who had 38 shots, also had a slight edge in ground balls and fewer turnovers. Cole Yeager won 14 of 19 battles on the X for the Blue.

VS. PENN

The Bulldogs own a 46-27 lead in a series that began in 1919. Yale has taken two of the last three meetings with the Quakers after losing the three straight.

TIGERS EDGE BULLDOGS IN 5 OT

Alex Capretta?s third goal of the day at 1:39 of the fifth extra session gave No. 13 Princeton a 10-9 win over Yale last Saturday before a packed Reese Stadium. Princeton had two-goal leads three times before going up 8-5 early in the fourth quarter. The Tigers had the edge in shots (49-38) and ground balls (34-29), but Yale won 14 of 26 face-offs. Dylan Levings won 10 of 17 face-offs and helped engineer the three-goal comeback. Brandon Mangan, who had a game-high five points, led the Bulldogs with two goals, including one with 47 seconds left in regulation that brought the home team to within one. Yale?s sophomore goalie Jack Meyer had his best game as a Bulldog with 14 saves, including three in the second overtime. The Tigers sent six shots at him in the first OT and eight more in the second. Eighteen of their 49 shots came after regulation.

3 STRAIGHT RANKED OPPONENTS

The Elis have played three straight games against ranked opponents: No. 7 Lehigh, No. 5 Cornell and No. 13 Princeton. The one-goal decisions against the Big Red and Tigers were enough to get Yale votes in both national polls this week.

PENN QUAKERS

Penn had an 11-8 lead over Cornell at home last week heading into the fourth quarter looking for a huge upset. The Big Red scored eight straight to win 16-11. Cornell outshot Penn, 37-29, and Quaker goalie Brian Feeney stopped seven shots. Attackman Dan Savage, who leads the team with 10 goals and 15 points, and midfielder Anthony Adler each had three goals and four points, while Joe McCallion (11-18) and Danny Feeney (10-14) both had good days on the X for Penn.

LONGEST GAME

The Yale-Princeton game, which was 78 minutes and 21 seconds, was the longest ever for both schools. The five-OT thriller surpassed the previous Yale-high, a four-OT loss to Brown on April 4, 2001 at New Haven. This year?s thriller is the second longest Ivy game (1973 Cornell-Penn went 80:00 in 5 OT). The NCAA Division I men?s record is seven extra sessions by Virginia and Maryland in 2009.

M Michael Pratt, the captain of the Bulldogs who has three goals and 13 ground balls this season, has been a leader while playing in every game since arriving in New Haven. He was named to the 2012 insidelacrosse.com Pre-Season All-Ivy League Team. Pratt, who received the Winthrop Smith Award (team conditioning, inspiration, and team work) after the 2011 season, was third on the team with 42 ground balls while chipping in four goals and 10 caused turnovers.

GIBSON

A two-time honorable mention All-America selection and 2011 first-team All-Ivy pick, Matt Gibson (Point Lookout, N.Y.) is one of the most exciting players in the college game and was named on the 2012 Tewaaraton Award Watch List. He is second on the team with 18 points, including nine goals. Gibson was a 2010 second-team All-Ivy pick and is Yale's active career point leader. His brother, Brendan, captain the Blue in 2010.

Greg Mahony (9 goals, 13 points, 6 GP) was selected as one of the 20 NCAA men's lacrosse student-athletes for the 2012 Lowe's Senior CLASS Award. This award honors Division I seniors who have notable achievements in four areas of excellence: community, classroom, character and competition. Mahony, a midfielder selected for the 2012 Tewaaraton Award Watch List, is a two-time All-Ivy and All-New England selection who was taken by the Boston Cannons in the 2012 Major League Lacrosse Collegiate Draft. He has a 3.44 GPA and is majoring in the history of medicine science (pre-med) at Yale. An acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School®, the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award focuses on the total student-athlete and encourages students to use their platform in athletics to make a positive impact as leaders in their communities. Mahony is following in the footsteps of Yale goalie Johnathan Falcone '11, a finalist for the 2011 Lowe's Senior CLASS Award who was named to the Lowe's second-team All-America squad.

LEVINGS

Sophomore Dylan Levings has been sharing face-off time with Cole Yeager, who typically starts the game. However, Levings ranks sixth in the nation with a .625 face-off win percentage. He is 15th in ground balls (5.5). Levings was the backup on the X last year but still led the team with a .726 win percentage. He did not have enough attempts to qualify for the national rankings.

OBERBECK

Conrad Oberbeck, a freshman from Greenwich, Conn., leads the team with 14 goals and is third with 17 points. He was named Ivy League Rookie of the Week on March 12 for his five goals in two games. Oberbeck, an attackman who played at Brunswick School, ranks fifth among Division I rookies with 14 goals and is ninth overall in the nation with a .500 shot percentage.

DEFENSE

Two members of the Yale defense have been leaders in taking the ball away from opponents. Junior Peter Johnson ranks ninth Division I in caused turnovers with 2.17, while classmate Michael McCormack is 15th (1.8).

IN GOAL

Sophomore Jack Meyer (8.55, .508), who had his best and longest day as a collegiate goalie against Princeton (14 saves), has started the last three games and has 31 saves overall in five games this season. As a newcomer in 2011, Meyer saw action in parts of three games (54 minutes). Freshman Eric Natale (8.94) started the first three games and has 13 saves.

TEAM RANKINGS

Here's how Yale looks compared to the other Division I teams.

Scoring: 11.7 (16th)

Defense: 9.1 (21st)

Face-off: .572 (11th)

Shot Pct: .302 (25th)

Ground Balls: 33.0 (10th)

Caused T.O.: 9.0 (8th)*

*tops in Ivy League

MLL DRAFT

Jack Flaherty '11 (Chesapeake Bayhawks) and seniors Matt Gibson (Chesapeake Bayhawks) and Greg Mahony (Boston Cannons) were drafted by MLL teams over the winter. Flaherty was taken in the supplemental draft while the current Elis got selected in the collegiate draft.

NEILA PICKS

Yale, sixth in the latest New England poll, has four players who were honored in the pre-season voting. Matt Gibson was picked as 2012 player of the year, while M Greg Mahony, D Michael McCormack and FO Cole Yeager were also first-team selections.

YALE CONNECTIONS

Senior M Robby Berner helped the Yale men's squash team end the longest win streak in the history of college sports when the Bulldogs beat Trinity in January? Freshman M James Tjarksen is the son of a former Yale football player, Michael Tjarksen '86? Sophomore M Jackson Logie's dad, Scott Logie '85, played hockey at Yale, while his mom, Connie Ambler ?88, played lacrosse and field hockey for the Bulldogs. She was instrumental in building lax in her area of Wisconsin for boys and girls.

HEAD COACH ANDY SHAY

Andy Shay, in his ninth season at Yale, has engineered consecutive 10-win seasons, a 20-8 record, two Ivy League Tournament appearances and a regular-season Ivy League Championship in the last two springs. He guided the 2010 Bulldogs to a 10-4 season that included a share of the Ivy League title and a spot in the inaugural league tournament. The Bulldogs' 2010 season marked the first post-season appearance since 1992 and the first Ivy championship since 1990. Shay's squad was ranked as high as No. 9 at one point during the campaign. He is 56-57 overall at Yale. Shay, named Yale head coach on June 25, 2003, helped guide the University of Massachusetts to the 2002 and 2003 NCAA quarterfinals as an assistant coach for four years. Prior to joining UMass' staff, Shay was an assistant coach at Delaware, where in 1999 he helped the Blue Hens capture the America East title with a 14-3 record and advance to the NCAA Tournament for only the second time in school history. Shay began his coaching career as the head coach at Morrisville (N.Y.) Junior College, and he compiled a 20-17 record in three years. Shay is a 1994 graduate of LeMoyne College where he was a four-year starting defenseman and served as team captain for two years. He was an All-Empire League selection as a senior when he led the team to a league title.

IVY TITLES

Yale, which shared a league title in 2010, has won six Ivy League Championships, including the first one handed out in 1956. The others came in 1969, 1988, 89, 90 and 2010. The outright titles were in 1956 and 1989.

CALLING THE ACTION

Evan Ellis 12 and West Haven High School lacrosse coach Patrick Reed call the action on Yale All Access. All Yale home games can be seen live on yalebulldogs.com and include a 10 minute pre-game show.

REESE STADIUM

Reese Stadium, which was dedicated on April 9, 2011, is a state-of-the-art facility for both Yale lacrosse and soccer teams. The renovations completed last summer include increased stadium seating, an entry plaza, team rooms and a press box. Recent improvements included a FieldTurf surface and new lighting. Reese Stadium, formerly known as the Yale Soccer-Lacrosse Stadium, is named after former lacrosse players Jason Reese '87 and Jon Reese '90.